


Don't Leave Home

by raendown



Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [133]
Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:00:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21548764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: Genma begs his partner not to go.
Relationships: Namiashi Raidou/Shiranui Genma
Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [133]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533161
Comments: 6
Kudos: 59





	Don't Leave Home

Genma scrubbed at the back of his neck with one hand, pulling at the ends of his bandana until finally he pulled the whole thing off to fiddle with it in his lap before allowing it to fall to the floor. His eyes remained riveted across the room where his partner of three years stood folding clothes in to a sturdy canvas bag.

“Don’t go,” he whispered. Raidou paused for a moment but didn’t turn around.

“Please don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

“I don’t want you to go,” Genma said. If he counted it was probably the fifteenth time he’d said as much in the past hour.

Raidou ignored him and kept packing.

Outside the window a gentle rain fell, soaking the thirsty earth after months of drought, and Genma wished he could enjoy the knowledge that this year’s crop wouldn’t be a total failure, the people of their village would not go hungry in the coming winter. It might have been selfish but he couldn’t help being more concerned with his own personal drama and the thought of spending his own winter all alone.

When he stood from his chair the wood creaked and Raidou sighed, dropping his head, knowing what was about to happen. Genma didn’t let the man’s reaction deter him from crossing the room to gently encourage his partner around where they could face each other. Raidou looked up at him with a deep sadness in his eyes, the corners of his mouth turned down unhappily.

“I don’t like this any more than you do,” he said.

“So don–”

“For the love of all that’s holy, if you ask me not to go one more time then I am never coming home.” His partner glared and finally Genma cracked the tiniest of smiles.

“You’d miss me too much.”

Raidou closed his eyes tiredly. “No. I hate you now. That’s why I’m running away from home.”

“I knew it.” Genma pulled one hand away to snap his fingers like he’d uncovered the last clue in solving a great mystery. The levity could only last for so long, however, and his smile was gone before a full minute had passed. More than just his chest, his entire body felt heavy with dread. Thankfully the two of them knew each other well and he found a familiar pair of lips seeking his own.

“Hey, it’s just a few months. It’s going to be hard,” Raidou admitted, “but every day I spend away from you is one less day until I can come back home. Not so bad when you think of it like that, right?”

“Nothing I could do or say is ever gonna make you wanna stay, huh?”

The despondent sigh that Genma was in the middle of hiccupped and faltered when Raidou smacked him in the chest. “You know damn well that I want to stay but this is our job. We’re shinobi. So when the Hokage says ‘jump’ we jump and when the Hokage says ‘go under cover for a few months’ you do that too. I’ll be home before you know it.”

In silence they held each other’s eyes and not for the first time Genma memorized this beloved face in case it was his last chance to do so. Every morning could be his last chance and he would be damned if he was the one who would ever take for granted the incredible love he’d somehow lucked in to. Raidou was everything to him. He wasn’t about to let the idiot forget that just because he insisted on following orders like a good boy.

“You come back safe, is that understood?”

“Sir, yes sir,” Raidou murmured.

“Good. I don’t want any letters or anything saying you went off and blew up your own leg or something.”

They went in for a hug at the same time and held each other tight without saying anything else for a long time. Maybe nothing he could say would convince Raidou to stay but maybe that strength was part of what had made him fall in love with the man in the first place. Genma breathed deep and told himself that he could be that strong too.

He would be anything that Raidou needed him to be. 


End file.
